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1, Cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-mille (CPM) advertising refers to placing banner ads and pay each time an user clicks on the banner (in the case of CPC) or each time an user sees the banner (in the case of CPM. CPM refers to the cost for 1,000 users seeing your banner, no matter of whether or not they interact with it)

WeChat CPC ads aren't nearly as good as their Western counterparts (especially compared to Facebook ads)That being said, I have good faith that they will become better in the future. So I'd like to spend a bit of time to explain what I like and dislike about them, and how you can leverage them.

1, "Subscription account ads"

"Subscription account ads" are a form of advertising displayed at the bottom of Public WeChat subscription accounts. They were released in mid-2014. Any subscription with over 100,000 can display them, and if advertisers spend money on them, the account gets a share of the revenue.

Pros: they only require 2,000 RMB (~300 USD) initial investment so they are a good way to get a few initial followers for some early testing

Cons: the click through rate (CTR) on these ads is very low, which makes the quality of the followers questionable. The targeting is not nearly as good as what you would get on Western platforms such as Facebook. Advertisers also have to go through a very tough review process before being allow to post ads. As these ads were not getting as much traction as they wished, Tencent launched in 2015 a new type of ads: Moments Ads

2, "Moment ads"

"Moments ads" are displayed, as their name suggests, in the users Moments (朋友圈), which is the equivalent of the Facebook timeline. They usually consist of a video or a set of pictures, linking to a HTML5 promotional website. Moment ads are good for very large companies who can throw money at multiple channels and want to make a splash/sensation everywhere, but they're not for everyone.

Pros: they are extremely visible and relatively exclusive as of now (only hundreds of companies used them for promotion) so they carry positive brand image association

Cons: they require large initial investment for Tencent to allow you in this select club (50,000 RMB if you are a Chinese company, about 20,000 USD if you are abroad). Targeting is far from perfect, CPM is high (almost $20 for tier 1 cities!) and conversion rate is usually low (expect at least $8 USD per follower)

2, Key Opinion Leader advertising (KOL ads) means paying a WeChat blogger to promote your brand. The KOL can either write an article about your brand, or write about an another topic and put a banner linking to your WeChat account somewhere in the article

KOL's are a much more savvy approach to marketing on WeChat. Key opinion leaders are powerful ways to drive traffic as they provide social proof for buyers. As such, they are perfect for brands with limited fame in China which want to land their first sales and test the market. Price for KOL might be as low as $100 for a banner on a small account, to $50,000 USD or more for a detailed article on a popular account. WeChat bloggers can promote your brand in several ways:

1, Writing a detailed article promoting your brand. Usually, the article will be written in the usual style of the KOL, but your products will be (more or less) subtly promoted within the piece

2, Adding a banner at the end of another article. This banner can contain a link to your WeChat account or a link to a product page. This is a more affordable way to promote your brand.

Where to find the right KOL?

Newrank.cn:https://www.newrank.cn Newrank.cn is main platform in China to list KOL based on their number of views and followers. They publish listings based on industries and write monthly reports about popular trends.On top of this information platform, Newrank.cn enables users to bid to post messages on some of their listed KOL's accounts. Newrank.cn is a good place to start for high quality KOL's, although prices can be high

微信：newrankmini

2, http://www.wemedia.cn/ WeMedia gives lists of KOL's in various industries with set prices. The accounts tend to have a large amount of fake followers, but the views are mostly real. So pay more attention to the average number of views than to the number of followers when making your pick.

商务合作：王凯 / 微信：18612123000

3, How to avoid fake KOL's? There is a large number of fake Key Opinion Leaders on WeChat. These fake KOL's usually have robot views and are copying content from other KOL's. They can therefore be difficult to detect as they have a consistent number of views and high quality articles.

1, Check the consistency between the number of views and the nature of the content. If a KOL has the same number of views on all articles, no matter if it is extremely high quality or highly promotional, then this KOL is most likely to be fake

2, If the KOL is willing to post any type of content, including highly promotional, it's likely fake. Make sure the KOL is challenging whatever you want to post in order to maintain a demanding editorial line

3, If you realize you've been tricked into advertising on a fake KOL (which will be made obvious by the low level of engagement): do complain, and complain hard. Most platforms will compensate you by providing another free campaign on an account with real fans

3, Viral campaigns are creative campaigns which are shared among users, either driven by a social impulse or by some financial incentive. Viral marketing means leveraging sharing between users in order to increase the number of views. There are two broad categories of viral marketing:1, Relying on concrete incentives (discounts, red envelopes, exclusive digital content, etc...). 2, Relying on social rewards (sharing fun content with friends). the risks of viral marketing on WeChat?

WeChat comes with many rules to prevent viral marketing. All of the following are forbidden: 1, providing any incentive (discount, red envelope, etc...) in exchange for following, shares, likes, access to content or any other user actions2, Explicitly asking users to share. 3, Collecting data without explanations of why it is collected and how it will be used. If you break these rules, you might be punished by having your account suspended, or even banned. Some high-profile examples of accounts getting banned for breaking the terms of use of Tencent include all of Uber China's accounts. Punishment is usually gradual starting with a warning, but Tencent can sometimes act unpredictably.

1, Suning: a successful but risky WeChat viral campaign

The e-commerce platform Suning led an incredibly successful viral campaign for the release of a series of new phones. The campaign was a “swipe” game. Users received a card with 4 gray squares, and could scratch one of them to reveal a phone. If all of the 4 squares contained the same phone model, the user would win that phone. But here is the catch: each user can only reveal one of the squares. To reveal the 3 others squares, the user has to forward the message to 3 friends who can each scratch one of the phones. These friends are then of course invited to play the same game and keep sharing. The campaign led to millions of clicks. But after a couple of days, it was banned by Tencent. This is a great example of the opportunities and risks of viral marketing on WeChat: amazing results, but it was ultimately banned and Suning's WeChat account was put at risk. As a summary, viral campaigns make for interesting case studies, and many brands are still having a stab at them in order to get quick exposure. They however remain very risky as Tencent is increasingly enforcing their terms of use and banning accounts which break the rules.

4, Wrap up about traffic generation on WeChat shops

CPC WeChat are not as efficient as their Western counterparts. CPC ads from subscription accounts can however be a good way to lead a first campaign due to their low barrier to entry

KOL are a great option for new brands with limited footprint in China. Banners at the bottom of KOL accounts can be affordable ($100 for the cheapest) and offer an easy way to test the Chinese market

Be careful when picking KOL's through existing platforms. Do a proper due diligence as a lot of KOL accounts on WeChat are fake

Viral marketing is very risky although it can lead to impressive results. We would not recommend it except for very large companies with direct ties to Tencent